The feast day of Saint Cecilia was celebrated recently by the Archdiocese of Mobile with a blessing to the faithful at St. Cecilia Parish in Mt. Vernon.

“We commemorate St. Cecilia,” the archdiocese posted on Facebook Nov. 22, the Feast Day of St. Cecilia. “She was a young lady who lived in the Roman Empire in the early centuries of Christianity. Legend tells us that she converted the man she was betrothed to and they were both martyred. It is said that even after three blows to her neck St. Cecilia survived three days. We wish the folks at St. Cecilia Parish in Mt. Vernon a happy feast day.” 

According to her biography by Britannica, Cecilia was born in third-century Rome to a wealthy family. Although she pledged her virginity to God as a child, she was given in marriage to a young man named Valerian. On their wedding night, Cecilia told Valerian that an angel of God was protecting her purity. Although a pagan, Valerian agreed to honor her vow if he could also see the angel. Cecilia told Valerian he would have to convert and be baptized first; Valerian complied, and both he and his brother Tibertius saw Cecilia speaking with the angel.

Catholic Online's biography of St. Cecilia states Valerian and Tibertius dedicated the rest of their lives to burying Christians who had been executed by the prefect of the city. The brothers were arrested, refused to repent by making sacrifices to pagan gods, and were executed. Cecilia was arrested for giving their bodies a Christian burial and sentenced to death by suffocation in a "vapor bath," according to Roman Catholic Saints, "yet remained unharmed." She was then sentenced to beheading, but the executioner failed to fully cut off her head and she lived for three days, preaching and praying as people came and collected her blood.

After she died, she was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons. According to Roman Catholic Saints, her body was exhumed in 1599 and found to be preserved. She is now considered the first saint whose body had experienced "incorruption."

According to the archdiocese, the Mount Vernon church had a long history as a mission parish. "By 1858 the church in Mt. Vernon was a mission parish under Bishop Michael Portier. Today a new parish church is home to a vibrant community,” the archdiocese wrote in its Facebook post.